


Blood Wrought Iron

by mercuryandglass



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Final Haikyuu Quest, Fantasy, Final Haikyuu Quest, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-13
Updated: 2017-03-13
Packaged: 2018-10-04 15:03:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,273
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10281701
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mercuryandglass/pseuds/mercuryandglass
Summary: It's Tooru against the entire material plane. Well, and Kuroo, too, he supposes.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [dicaeopolis](https://archiveofourown.org/users/dicaeopolis/gifts).



> Written for Becky for the HQ Rare Pair Exchange 2017
> 
> I hope you like it~~
> 
> (and sorry it's so short~)

“You’re a very strange cat,” he says.

The cat doesn’t respond. It continues to lick at the blood wrought iron of his sword.

“It’s not some treat, you know? It’s supposed to drain life from you on contact, and you’re just licking it like a caramel stick.”

The cat pauses this time. It stretches its lips over unnaturally sharp teeth in a mockery of the great Cheshire. Then it goes back to licking.

Tooru frowns. Something’s not right here. He raises the tip of his sword off the ground, bringing it out of the cat's reach and up to eye level.

The tip, once gleaming obsidian, now has a small indent of cinnabar red directly where the not-cat had been licking.

“You little demon! Do you know how difficult this is to sharpen?” Tooru pauses and reconsiders. “I’m right; aren’t I? You’re an actual demon.”

The cat just keeps grinning.

* * *

This is how they start.

* * *

“You cost me four days and four nights of work.”

“Ah, but how many have I saved for you, my liege?”

“That’s not the point! Next time anything manages to dull my sword you get to sharpen it, alright?” Tooru swings his legs over Kuroo’s lap just to be petty.

“It’s so tasty, though!”

Tooru stands up. “No. You’re not getting me to put the literal physical manifestation of death in my mouth. It’s not happening.” Tooru walks away.

* * *

This is not the end.

* * *

“You’re part demon too! Demons won’t actually be hurt by it!”

“I’m part human too!” Tooru mocks. “I’m pretty sure it’s designed specifically to drain life from mortals.”

“But the point is that you’re not!”

Tooru turns away and starts walking.

Kuroo teleports to the corner, leaning against the stone walls of the cold castle. “If you don’t believe me just see how your blood reacts to it. Just one drop would be enough. Come on, don’t you trust me?”

“No,” Tooru says immediately. “Even I know better than to trust demons.” He stride away, his cape floating behind him.

* * *

This is also not the end.

* * *

Years later, Tooru regrets never testing it out when it wasn’t necessary; it means that he needs to make a leap of faith when he has been backed into a corner. He doesn’t like making leaps of faith; he despises being forced into things.

Tooru exhales deeply, exuding melodrama from his very pores. “Well, it was certainly nice to see you again, Iwa-chan, Tobio-chan.” He grasps his sword with his bare hands.

Demonic energy surges through him, and his last thought as he blinks through the planes of existence is, _Kuroo is right. This is sweet._

* * *

This is the end.

The end of the beginning, that is.

* * *

Tooru starts from the ground up, building his kingdom anew. Letting the praises for his great Aoba Jousai spread across the realms.

This, he can do; he’s done it before. Not alone, sure, but this is his second time. It’s time to push himself. He can do it alone this time.

* * *

Iwa-chan is gone for good, probably, but that’s alright.

There will be others, eventually. Like Kuroo.

Whom Tooru is trying to summon, currently.

He’s at the clearing where they’d first met, when Tooru woke up from his nap to find a not-cat corroding at his favourite sword.

It’s also the place Tooru had been teleported to, that time he escaped death.

It obviously has meaning, to Kuroo and to Tooru.

_Now, if only I can figure out how…_

* * *

Tooru finds the mage by pure luck, or at least it must be, because the only other possibility is that the mage found him, and that is infinitely more terrifying to consider, not to mention unlikely.

So he's sticking with luck. It’s also by pure luck that the mage isn’t hostile, especially since Kozume had been part of that merry band of heroes.

“I know who you search for,” Kozume says, not looking up from his cards.

“How?” Tooru doesn’t threaten him. They both know that Tooru is in no position to be condescending at this point.

“He was once my patron. It’s his magic that I use, even now.” A spark of red light flashes between Kozume’s cards and Tooru’s sword.

He’s a warlock, Tooru realises. “How did you turn against him, then?”

Kozume smiles, and Tooru sees the resemblance now. Warlocks always take after their patrons in someway, and Kozume has pilfered Kuroo’s needle sharp teeth and the gold gleam of eyes under moonlight.

“I didn’t turn against him. I turned against you. My devotion and his trust is strong enough to withstand such paradox.” He smirks. “You and your paladin has a similar link, I think.”

Tooru considers Kozume’s words. He draws his sword, still stained with cinnabar impurities. “Stop speaking in riddles and tell me how to find him.” He holds it to Kozume’s temple, touching him.

Kozume doesn’t even flinch as the black tip pierces his skin. “The answer is already within your grasp.” He lifts a finger and pushes the tip of the sword away. Where the tip was within flesh but moments ago, there is nothing but flawless skin. Kozume snaps his fingers, and his entire Diviner’s stand flashes away in red light.

Tooru is left standing in the clearing with only his sword and more questions.

* * *

Tooru is finally sharpening his sword. It will take even longer this time. Kuroo was supposed to be doing this, but the stupid demon managed to get desummoned to shirk his duty.

Incredible.

He sits on the edge of the wellspring of his birthplace, washing the cinnabar away with magic in its purest liquid manifestation.

Iwa-chan approaches him from behind.

Tooru tenses only slightly. “Here to finish me off?”

“No. This is a place of truce and trust. Our relationship hasn’t sullied itself that far.”

“Of course you can say that. You haven’t been reduced to a fraction of your previous might.” Tooru slides imperial jade harder than necessary against the blunt edge of his sword just to hear the clink of flinching armour.

“It’s funny that you say that,” Iwa-chan says.

Tooru isn’t about to admit that he has no idea what in the multiverse Iwa-chan is talking about, so he stays silent.

Iwa-chan sighs loudly. “Look, if you want to find me, where do you go? What do you use?”

Tooru slicks his whetstone down his blade in an exaggerated manner. _What do you think I’m doing right now?_

“Exactly! Now stop disrupting my dreams.” Iwa-chan walks away.

* * *

Dead ends, all of them.

Tooru hadn’t even gotten to talk to Tobio-chan, who shot at Tooru whenever he approached. Tobio-chan must be the worst student in the entire space-time continuum.

Tooru lies in the middle of the clearing again, surrounded by shadows of the cursed forest. He waves the silhouette of his newly sharpened sword through the clouds, watching them part with slashes that do not at all resemble a particularly horrible haircut.

He sheathes the sword again.

A fat droplet of rain falls into his open mouth.

_…where do you go? What do you use?_

It holds the faintest hint of sweetness.

_…already within you grasp._

Tooru draws his sword just to see the rain evaporate before it touches the metal.

_Just one drop…_

The rain doesn’t disintegrate, strangely enough. It wobbles at the tip of the sword, clinging and tempting.

_It’s so tasty, though!_

And that's when everything clicks.

Tooru sticks out the very tip of his tongue and licks at the literal physical manifestation of death.

“I thought you know better than to trust demons?”

* * *

“It worked!”

* * *

And this is still not the end.

**Author's Note:**

> [Come follow me on tumblr!](http://mercuryandglass.tumblr.com/)
> 
> Disclaimer:  
> This is only vaguely based off of the Final Haikyuu Quest story line in that character archetypes are pretty similar? Other wise you might find tidbits of D&D, generic high fantasy elements, Eastern mythology, and other entirely original pieces of worldbuilding. I do apologise, though; the fairy tale type story telling is a bit bare boned maybe? Overall I'm please with the plot, but I'm not too keen on my execution. :/


End file.
